Chapter 26- Journeying east
They traveled east, away from the direction of the setting sun.
August had recalled watching the many beasts of the forest flee to the east, and had decided that whatever they were trying to evade was probably in his best interest to avoid as well.
After all, death was never a fun experience.
The speed of their travel was truly astounding as well, his swords traveled at a speed almost equivalent to Alia whilst she ran, and by holding on to them whilst they flew above the trees, he was able to keep pace with her.
Though it was not long before they ran into trouble.
A flock of reptilian birds attempted to attack him whilst he was airborne on his sword, in which case they learned rather quickly that their prey was truly a predator.
He let go of his flying sword, summoning one more under him as he fell. Weapons that were meant to be fired couldn't be interfered with until they fired, and could be turned to aim, which is why August had initially thought of making a habit of standing on the flat of the blade.
Though it would be just a little bit longer before he got the hang of it.
He wobbled and nearly fell, but calling on a lance above him to grab onto fixed his problem rather quickly.
He studied the circling flock of reptilian birds, of which there were eight. Then he summoned six lances and two swords, aiming them each carefully before firing them.
Two missed the intended target, but six hit the mark, sailing straight through the birds and sending them careening until the ground below.
A quick resummoning and firing of the blades dealt with the ones who were left.
'My God that force is something else entirely, isn't it?'
August dropped from his sword into a tree beneath, diligently descending the branches and landing on the ground below, where Alia was waiting patiently, her face beet red.
"Idiot! You damn near gave me heart attack! I thought it was raining monsters!" She Yemen at him.
"Creatures, not monsters." He corrected her, moving towards one of the corpses.
Suddenly, one of his swords whistled past his head, embedding itself into a tree a few meters back.
"Creatures," She said "and watch your back."
August turned to see one of the reptilian birds that he must have failed to kill, the head of the beast was nailed to a tree, crimson blood trickling down from it.
'I got stronger, but that's just inhuman' He thought to himself.
After collecting all the aura molds from the dead creatures, they returned to their journey.
Occasionally, they would stop and rest. August would sleep first, as he actually needed it, whilst Alia would take her rest afterwards while he kept watch.
Neither of them would ever be alerted when a beast wandered too close, he could dispatch them from a distance with his fired weapons, whilst Alia simply overwhelmed and cut them down.
This made for a calm and smooth ride for eight days.
Then they started to come across beasts much more frequently.
By the end of the ninth day of travel, August had a total of forty eight weapons in his storage. Fourteen were various different types of swords, he had created four longswords, eight claymores and one broadsword.
He also attempted to create a katana, but without a proper understanding of eastern culture, he simply couldn't forge it. The poor blade had become a disformed clump of steel, with uneven balance and apparently much too rigid, as it had shattered upon contact with a giant lizard.
Which just so happened to be the beast they were in conflict with right now.
An enormous lizard was dashing through the forest directly at Alia, who was now brandishing her original longsword at the beast in the absence of the misshapen katana.
She brought her sword down on contact with the reptile, possibly attempting to cleave the head in two. The lizard however, had rather flexible skin, its head slammed into the ground and there was a loud cracking sound, then the sound of shattering as the redhead's longsword split in two at the blade's hilt.
The giant lizard then rolled over and swung its massive tail at Alia, who blocked the attack with her now braced arm, digging her heels into the ground and sliding to the side.
"August! A little help would be much appreciated!" The girl yelled.
"I don't know Lia! Maybe if you acknowledged the nickname we wouldn't be in this situation!" He shouted back, a smile playing at the corner of his lips.
Indeed, the reason the large lizard had detected their presence was due to a shouting match they had gotten into over August's new choice of nickname for the redhead, which she really seemed to dislike for some reason or another.
She punched the reptile in the eye, splattering blood on her turquoise armor, then she kicked it away. Then turned at him and sneered.
"Fine! Call me whatever you want but the second I come up with one for you it is so over!"
He returned her Malice with a small smile, then summoned a longsword in firing mode, and aimed it at her.
"That wasn't so hard! Now catch!"
He fired another longsword at the redhead, who was now trapped between a giant lizard and flying blade.
She grabbed the hilt of the speeding sword, executing a spinning motion with the sword in hand, preserving as much momentum as she could before translating it into a lethal horizontal slash, cleaving the cranium of the lizard almost clean off.
She then turned her attention to August, who was standing only a few dozen feet back.
She dashed at him, readying herself to cut him in two at the waist. Though, August was already flying past her whilst holding the hilt of a flying sword, with his tongue stuck out at her.
He let go, sliding to a stop by the corpse of the lizard and extracting an aura mold from it within a few seconds.
Which was more than enough time for the redhead to slap him with her armored hand, bursting his lip.
"Don't play with my life!" She screamed in his ear, after grabbing it and pulling him down.
August winced from the noise then apologized and pleaded for his ear, which she promptly let go of.
He stored the aura mold before looking around at the multitude of shining eyes coming from the depths of the dense forest.
"Hey..." he started.
"Yeah, I know." The red haired girl cut him off.
Then they delved into the battle once again.